Illegality and the Production of Affluence: Undocumented Labor and Gentrification in Rural America

Over several decades, the influx of wealthy, white "lifestyle" migrants has transformed the economic, social, and ecological fabric of many rural communities across the United States—from alpine towns of the Rockies to forest and lake communities of the Southeast—in a process akin to urban gentrification. Illegality and the Production of Affluence explores an underappreciated dimension of this process: its dependence on low-wage Latine immigrant workers, many undocumented, who build and mai...